Mehregan, the Persian harvest festival

On Saturday, Mark and I went with our friend Shirin to Orange County's Mehregan celebration. Mehregan is the Persian harvest festival, and Southern California has a pretty good-sized concentration of Iranians ("Tehrangeles", as they say), so it was quite the happening spot. In fact, here's Shirin and I at the Hot and Happening Spot:

Oh, oh, the food. We had some delicious stuff, like this chicken kebab:

And here's Mark's falafel, also great:

But the star was the ash reshteh, this creamy, minty noodle soup:

Shirin tells me ash is a name that covers a bunch of different Persian soups (I think "ash" is Farsi for "soup"), but ash reshteh is this particular kind with the noodles. I'm not quite sure what all is going on in it flavor-wise, but it's very herby, sort of like a minty pesto. And the noodles are big and thick, like homemade chicken soup noodles. Shirin's going to give me a recipe for it. I can't wait to try it at home!

For dessert, I had rosewater saffron ice cream with pistachios. I forgot to take pictures, but it was great. Shirin and Mark both had pomegranate sorbet, I think. It wasn't like any sorbet I've seen -- it was translucent and pretty soft, with little bits of some kind of rice noodle in it. It was great too, if a wee bit too sweet after a while.